Thaz.

Angry wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 10:26am:


I checked, and complacency is not compulsory in any of the European countries. 

Ironically, You are free to complain or not complain about whatever you want, even in your country, Thaz.

Carry on complaining about the complainers.

Angry wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 10:26am:

Thaz, be a realist. For years The Vault has been blasting Turbine for their misplaced priorities and game killing decisions, if your complaining about it hasn't changed us by now, it's not gonna. My advice? Get over it or get out.


And lest that sound unjustifiably condescending, please take it in the spirit in which it was originally intended.
Angry wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 2:54am:

Angry wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 10:26am:


To be fair, we're all guilty of complaining from time to time.
I agree that endless whining is annoying, but I would never level that accusation against at M.  Over the years, M has contributed a lot of insights and knowledge to the discussions.

I think your targeted criticisms of M are unwarranted.

Be aware that many here are not 15 yr old kids whinging that our toys have been taken away.
Many of us are experienced professionals who can see the value of what Turdbine have and are baffled by how badly they continue to manage it.
That does make us frustrated and I'm sure we can all be accused of coming across as negative because of this.


Angry wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 10:26am:

You're entitled to your views and in some ways I understand your viewpoint.

I don't expect Turdbine to listen.
Maybe someone at WB with some business acumen will read some of the more useful stuff and wonder what is happening in their subsidiary.

Discussing ideas and opinions doesn't have to have a purpose or outcome.
A respectful debate can be a way to expand your own thinking and intellect.
I've learnt a lot from discussions here and welcome respectful debate on the many issues.

DropBear wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 9:03pm:


Agreed. There are enough articles on the web of decent practice and making any code friendly, maintainable, have scalability and be useful all in one. I get the sense that they let some of the interns run around, during massive changes like MotU, doing their own thing for a while and nobody could be bothered to go back and fix it afterwards because they won't get paid for it if it isn't obscenely broken.

DropBear wrote on Sep 29^th, 2015 at 9:03pm:


Maintenance mode is good and all but that would imply that they are ready to shut down. While their sales figures would most likely not support anything very high budget at the moment, I don't think they have reached such a low point that the plug needs to be pulled. Fixing the core code has its own problems besides time frame. WB should be able to provide some budget for such an endevour.

It could however be done in a way that will achieve both a short time frame while still pumping out content. Have an external team come and start making the code more streamlined and friendly while the current team gets one or two senior developers who act as a QA of sorts as well as your more general leads on modules. They can also train the current team on better practice.

Once that is done, they have a large beta testing phase where the customers get to test the new version. Having 300-500 people to test all aspects of the game in a long enough time period and have them submit feedback which has to get looked at and addressed by the new team and the current team is part of that show so they can see what they should be doing. If all goes well, roll out DDO 2.0 as if nothing has changed.

Of course this is all relying on the budget that WB wants to throw into the game and what result they expect out of it. I suspect that that is what is happening at the very moment with all the class overhauls and the recent changed store pictures that were posted but I could be very wrong and that's just the prelude to the plug being pulled as well. Only time will tell.

Galadriel wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 1:29am:


Taking MajMal's comments, MOTU introduced a lot of the current problems.  I think shortcuts were taken, and sometime after that the 4 releases a year came along and any chance of fixing MOTU disappeared.
Now it is fire fighting, not fire prevention.

Galadriel wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 1:29am:


I have said in some of my other verbose posts, that I do believe DDO could be turned around by a small competent team.
I defer to your expertise in these projects, but my instinct was to run in parallel as well.  You have to keep the masses happy, but you have to stop looking at just the 3 months in front of you because they are going to plow into a wall.

The last few updates have been pretty uninspiring for most.

I know they're trying to address lag and much of what they're doing is likely unseen, but it's all likely to be bandaid solutions.
Turning the light effect off the archon lantern, and now they introduce Bigby's hands that leave a pillar of light - I can't help but think it hasn't been thought through or tested.



Galadriel wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 1:29am:


Absolutely this.  A proper QA/QC and testing environment, with someone responsible for ensuring QA/QC is implemented.
Stress testing with a large number of players is essential.   Offer rewards for reporting bugs, so people don't sit on them and hope they make it thru to Live.

However, for any of that to happen, you'd have to change the head of Turdbine and flush half the middle mgmt out (there's your DDO budget right there).  The culture there is septic and it needs change mgmt.  Throwing money at mobile apps under Turdbine, given their track record, is ludicrous.

Galadriel wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 1:29am:


I simply look at what they pissed away on IC, and shake my head.
I know it was another project likely funded separately, but still a fraction of that could resurrect DDO (despite what Thaz thinks).

I think the class overhauls are actually harming the game - they're swinging the balance too far in different directions.  If they don't get finished and soon, then whole classes will be unplayable except for shits&giggles.

The big thing in DDO's favour is content.
They have a wealth of content - DDO2 or DDO revamped or whatever is not starting from scratch.
It's an overhaul and some of that content will need changing, but the core of it all exists.
It's just the mechanics and systems that need to be addressed.
I'm not even sure you would update the graphics in the first pass either (not the highest priority).  Later you could bring a better display engine (like LOTRO's? - Why? beautiful graphics, already own the licence (cheap!) and have in-house experience with it?).

I definitely think the new player experience needs a focus as DDO's retention is appalling.
That ranges from sexifying the new player areas, streamlining the pathing between early quests and making the character selection more newb friendly (make the class paths meaningful).

Galadriel wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 1:29am:


Unfortunately, I suspect the same thing.
The move to mobile apps would seem all exciting and new as well as being the career path forward, so no-one internally would have the motivation to even try to turn DDO around.

It would take an ambitious go-getter from within WB's ranks trying to make a name for themselves - and that approach could end up being worse than Turdbine's approach.

As some suspected, Sev's role was probably to steer DDO into maint mode, but he ended up almost destroying it in the process.

DropBear wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 3:05am:


Aww... I seem to have hurt someone's feelbads.

Quoting Meursault "It's a free country", you can do your adult talk all you want, but as I see it, about 90 percent of your text is nothing but political filler and philosophizing. If I wanted to read about, I would read the politics section of the news. I personally prefer to read text that don't contain all the filler haze, but actually get down to the point.

Now, I might be an ass for attacking the generally peaceful dropbear, but I didn't really join this conversation to get a lecture about why I should think differently. I joined this one to tell ppl to shut the fuck up.

Angry wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 3:59am:


I'll try to keep this succinct so it does not overload your mind.
Tit, bum, shit, fuck!
Fear not dear Thaz, but you can't hurt my "feelbads" because I have no respect for you as an individual.   
Tit, bum, shit, fuck!
I am verbose because rather than making a simple statement which can be misinterpreted and torn apart, I like to explain my thoughts.  We have different writing styles, but I am more tolerant of others than you.
Tit, bum, shit, fuck!
While most here probably share your view of me, I hope a small few find my thoughts engaging enough to respond to.  I think most developed countries share a view of freedom of expression (that is not denigrating, defamatory, racist etc).
Tit, bum, shit, fuck!

Angry wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 3:59am:

I for one was not lecturing you, I was debating your ideas.  There was nothing condescending or demeaning in my previous posts.

Angry wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 3:59am:

Nothing like aiming high....
Is your life so empty that you join a forum to tell people that?

Angry wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 3:59am:


It looks like you joined the conversation for exactly the purpose of getting a lecture about why you should think differently.

It's the response most of your posts get.

Why did you think this time would be different?  Did you do or say anything differently?

Meursault wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 7:08am:


Mirror thoughts... must resist... temptation...

Angry wrote on Sep 30^th, 2015 at 5:29am:


I have to agree with this statement. I fail to see what your logic is here. In this thread. At all 

I'm stuck on an iPad, so this might have to wait until tonight, but here's hoping

HTTP://thecodelesscode.com/case/33

Cleaning up their code isn't a cost, it's an improvement in efficiency.